La Précieuse, Montelimar and Waguri Mont-Blanc

Though it doesn't feel so long ago now, last Saturday I got a couple cakes for two from one of the shops on my quite fine group, La Précieuse on the north side of the Yotsuya Station building. I got the take-out, though they have a café space that I've used before. My choice was Montelimar, since I've had good luck with at least one cake of that name, and I like pistachio (hard to see in the picture, but the bottom is pistachio cream) and I think the top is mousse with honey and fruit. It was good. 

The other cake was the Waguri (domestic chestnut) Mont-Blanc. The sign says that you have to wait a couple minutes, because they make them fresh, but I think they didn't take so much time in the backroom. It also was good and had a meringue base, if I'm remembering correctly. So it's definitely a fine shop, but will get cut if I every manage to do a cut (I'm running out of shops to test, so it will probably depend on whether I add any new shops that make it to that level).

Walking to Précieuse

I tried walking instead of running today, which was okay. This time 2.5 km might have been enough, although my shin never got more than a little tight even going double, and I didn't have trouble or feel anything climbing the stairs when I came home, but I think tomorrow that I'll not run. Still, I want cake, because today's cake was not great, so I'll go to Isetan, probably (I'm not expecting to work late again tomorrow).

Actually, I went to Yotsu Atré to visit Paul with the hope of getting a canelé, which they did not have. I've seen a photo of one posted for them at Tabelog, so it was not my imagination that they have them sometimes. Next time I go, I'll ask what their schedule is for making them.

Instead, I got a Coccinelle (ladybug) for 500 yen from La Précieuse, which is several millimeters thick of somewhat gelatinous raspberry mousse, and there is honey mousse, which maybe the cream belong that, which did not really have a distinct taste. The irregular pile of caramel and almond slices (?) that formed the anchor in the middle was okay, and the cake was good, but it's really not the kind of cake that I want to be eating, so I'm downgrading them to just good. Given that I've posted on at least 6 cakes from each my "Great" shops, I'd like to get all the "Worthy"s up to 2 cakes before thinking about getting all the "Good" shops up to at least 1 cake. I have 11 great shops now (ignoring redundant branches) and I think 28 worthy ones, so 6:2 seems like a good balance.

Le Précieuse (No running)

This time I bought closer to home, at La Précieuse, although the bag and card say Le Milieu, which seems to be the home base, in Kanazawa.

Got the Sicilian. Not sure what was in it. Sorry, out of the habit. It's pistachios, I know, baked to be hard (maybe a meringue), and then a cream/custard layer with fruit, strawberry, maybe, although just small pieces. It was 470, which was reasonable (though it is small), and it also traveled well by bike, which is important now, since I can't run. More importantly, it was excellent, so I should get back there, which is pretty easy to do, although while I'm not running I'll probably limit my cake. But a couple cakes during the week would be nice. Also, I have a baking disaster that I need to either eat up or throw away, that I don't want to write further about other than to say, I'm going to try again next weekend.